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FIRST ARTISTS OF THE RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM

Since becoming Professor Emeritus, I have been researching the first artists of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam as translated by Edward FitzGerald. Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) was a Persian scientist, mathematician and astronomer who also wrote poetry. The Englishman FitzGerald first translated a selection of 75 of his four-line poems (called quatrains) anonymously in 1859 and followed this up with additional verses and retranslations in four subsequent editions. At the turn of the 19th to 20th century, the poems were widely popular worldwide. During this era many dozens of artists illustrated, decorated or embellished the large number of publications of the poems. FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is one of, if not the most, widely published book of poetry the world has ever seen. It is also the most illustrated of all books of poetry. New editions by new artists continue to be published to this day. I have begun to detail the first artists of the Rubaiyat and, in addition to cataloging them for the first time, I have been lucky to make many new discoveries.

To date this has been detailed in the four books shown here. Here I will summarize the main points of those volumes and any new research on these early artists. I will also use these pages to update information contained in those four volumes. On other pages, I will add information about other interesting things I’ve learned about the Rubaiyat artists.

The Golden Age of Rubáiyát Art
Complete Catalog In 3 Volumes (2017)
Danton H. O’Day

The 1st complete documentation of the illustrators and decorators
of Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám from 1884-1913.


Volume I. The Illustrators
  • 34 illustrators, each with their own subsection
  • Tables and Figures detail the publications and timeline
  • Discovery of a previously unknown illustrator
  • 168 pictures; many for the first time since their original publication over 100 years ago
​Volume II. Popular Themes
  • 3 major: Here Beneath the Bough; Potter Thumping His Clay; Angel of the darker Drink
  • 2 minor: Nudes, Good Angels
  • 68 pictures; many for the first time since their original publication over 100 years ago
​Volume III. The Decorators
  • Chronological sequence of 36 page decorators plus other book embellishers; more than previously realized
  • Tables & Charts detail the artists and publications
  • Discovery of a new decorator and reveals previously unrecognized work by others
  • Cover, Frontispiece, Title, Endpaper & Page decorators are covered
  • 161 pictures; many for the first time since their original publication over 100 years ago


Artists of the Omar Khayyám Club of London,
1892-1929
Danton H. O’Day, Emeritus Press, 2017.

Details the artists who illustrated the menus for Club meetings
Introduces many beautiful and evocative new pictures not available to the general public
Reveals many errors in attribution of artistic credits
Reveals another unknown artist

Photoquality, Book Sources

Softcover Trade Book Sources

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